10 New Reasons to Love Jenna Lyons

It's no secret we love Jenna Lyons. And with her recent mini press blitz--starting with her "coming out" feature in the New York Times and candid interviews this week in Harper's Bazaar and Fast Company--there's even more to love.
From joking about taking out her dentures (yes, she has dentures and the balls to talk about them), to being scared Mickey Drexler would fire her, read on for 10 new tidbits that'll make you wish you could be BFFs with Ms. Lyons.

From joking about taking out her dentures (yes, she has dentures and the balls to talk about them), to being scared Mickey Drexler would fire her, read on for 10 new tidbits that'll make you wish you could be BFFs with Ms. Lyons.

1. She's worn dentures since she was a kid:

"Lyons was born with incontinentia pigmenti, a genetic disorder that led to scarred skin, patchy hair, and lost teeth, requiring dentures as a kid."

2. Her son already has a killer fashion sense--he loves cashmere and Christian Louboutin:

I pick out clothes for my son, Beckett. He definitely has a preference for cashmere—I've created a monster...Sometimes Beckett picks out my shoes. The only thing is, he's got a one-track mind. I have these flat shoes, Christian Louboutin, with spikes all over them. If left up to him, I would wear them far too frequently.

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3. She's fucking busy:

"I get probably 200-plus e-mails and more than 100 texts a day...I have between 10 and 18 meetings a day. It's a lot."

But not too busy to check Instagram:

"I check my Instagram far too much, like in the middle of meetings, which I need to stop doing. It's so sad."

To unwind, I usually drink one too many cocktails. I love looking at magazines. I get every possible one. I read everything from fashion magazines to New York. It's a problem—I have stacks all over the house. I go through my e-mails and read or catch up on episodes of Girls.

5. She was scared Mickey Drexler would fire her when they first met:

On [Drexler's] second day, he asked Lyons to run through the women's collection in front of the entire team and asked what she thought of [it]. "At that point I was like, I have to be honest," recalls Lyons. "I can't lie to him because this is sort of a do-or-die situation." She [told him there were pieces she didn't like.] "I didn't know if I was going to be fired," says Lyons. "I was so confused, and I was scared, but I was also a little bit excited, because all the things that I liked and that I thought were brand-right he was leaving up on the wall. And I was like, Is that good, is that bad? I don't know."

6. The meeting that made her president of J.Crew took two minutes:

"It was literally a two-second conversation," says Lyons. "[Drexler] pulled me into a room and said, 'So, just want to let you know you're the president.' I was like, uh, okay. Alrighty then."

7. She has a ton of shoes and clothes:

I collect all kinds of things. I easily own 300 pairs of shoes. And I have so many clothes; I have storage spaces full of clothes.

8. She has a healthy sense of humor about herself:

[Jenna] can hardly be accused of stuffy qualities like propriety or perfection. "Ask my ex-husband how perfect I am," she jokes during one of our interviews."

"I just went to see the Rolling Stones; Mick Jagger was four feet away from me. His hips move in a different direction than the rest of his body—he's incredible. There is nothing more bizarre, though, than being at a concert and realizing everyone is your age and then realizing we're all really damn old."

Whenever Drexler does decide to retire, she and [Libby Wadle, J.Crew's executive vice president of merchandising] are rumored to be in line to run the company. "I'll give it to Libby," laughs Lyons, feigning disinterest. "I'll sit in the corner and draw some stuff."

10. She does juice cleanses and says "hangry mangry":

"I'm so hungry. I haven't eaten in 10 days...I was like, errrr! errrr! with every pair of pants. The inside button would pop before I even zipped it. I was like, Oh, God!" So Lyons went on an organic-juice-cleanse-plus-Isogenics bender and has consumed nothing but liquids for more than a week. "I'm a little bit mangry. Hangry mangry."

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Lyons addresses the speech, in which she acknowledged her relationship with Courtney Crangi, for the first time, saying,
It’s just as surprising to me as it probably is to everyone else. It certainly is strange to wake up, at 44, and look at the person next to you and think: ‘Oh! This wasn’t what I expected.’ But I don’t think love works that way, and I am O.K. with that.
Mickey Drexler also weighed in.

New York magazine's fall fashion issue features a lengthy profile on J. Crew president, Jenna Lyons.
When I started reading it I thought I couldn't admire Lyons any more than I already do - she worked her way up in a national company and revitalized J. Crew from a fuddy-duddy lady brand into the coolest thing for ladies of all ages. But lo and behold, there were a slew of facts about the California native that even the most obsessed Lyons follower wouldn't have known.
So click through to find out more about Jenna Lyons. (Bonus fact: Her workspace is cooler than yours... and ours too.)